Hollow force is America's greatest threat.

• Author: Ullman, Harlan
• Position: Viewpoint

America and its friends face an array of perplexing national security challenges and threats. The most obvious are Islamic violent extremism, a resurgent Russia, a more aggressive China, a nuclear North Korea, climate change and humanitarian catastrophes arising from failed governments in the greater Middle East.

A further security threat unique to the United States is "sequestration."

Sequestration mandates equal, arbitrary budget cuts across all Defense Department programs irrespective of impact. This means buying x-percent less of all weapons, logistics and personnel programs--an irrational, destructive and wasteful way to manage an enterprise as vital as defense.

And that is not the only budgetary challenge facing the Pentagon.

Continuing resolutions that replace approved annual budgets further exacerbate the damage imposed by sequestration. This year to year, last-minute funding process defeats any sensible long-range planning stability for the Pentagon and efficiencies to be gained from it. The destructive effects of sequestration and continuing resolutions are well understood. But neither Congress nor the White House has acted to reverse these impediments to America's defenses.

Yet, a graver, more immediate and less visible danger imperils the future capability and capacity of America's formidable military. If not addressed relatively quickly, America's military is at great risk of becoming a 21 st century variant of the "hollow force" that so seriously crippled the nation's fighting capabilities after the Vietnam conflict ended.

In simple terms, a future "hollow force" is a military largely unprepared, unready and under equipped to carry out its peacetime and wartime missions because of insufficient funding for all of its programs, even if defense budgets are kept at current levels.

Uncontrollable internal cost growth that now infects almost all the Defense Department's programs will result in this hollow force.

Internal costs are growing in real terms at about 5 to 7 percent a year. For an annual defense budget of $600 billion, just to sustain that force at current levels of capability, readiness and modernization, yearly increases of $30 billion to $40 billion are required. And at a 7 percent annual increase, these costs double every 10 years.

As a consequence of exploding cost growth, nearly every item from people to precision weapons to pencils is becoming more expensive. Maintaining a highly trained, able and motivated...